The influence of sour taste and cold temperature in pharyngeal transit duration in patients with stroke.

CONTEXT The effect of sour taste and food temperature variations in dysphagic patients has not been entirely clarified. OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of sour and cold food in the pharyngeal transit times of patients with stroke. METHODS Patients participating in this study were 30 right-handed adults, 16 of which were male and 14 were female, aged 41 to 88 (average age 62.3 years) with ictus varying from 1 to 30 days (median of 6 days). To analyze the pharyngeal transit time a videofluoroscopy swallow test was performed. Each patient was observed during swallow of a 5 mL paste bolus given by spoon, totaling four different stimuli (natural, cold, sour and cold sour), one at a time, room temperature (22 degrees C) and cold (8 degrees C) were used. Later, the tests were analyzed using specific software to measure bolus transit time during the pharyngeal phase. RESULTS The results showed that the pharyngeal transit time was significantly shorter during swallow of cold sour bolus when compared with other stimuli. CONCLUSION Sour taste stimuli associated to cold temperature cause significant change in swallowing patterns, by shortening the pharyngeal transit time, which may lead to positive effects in patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia.